* Star normalised FY profit A$258.1 mln vs A$214.5 mln pvs
yr
* International VIP turnover up 54.3 pct
* Shares up as much as 10 pct
(Recasts with underlying profit, adds shares, analyst quote)
By Byron Kaye
SYDNEY, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Star Entertainment Group
, Australia's second-biggest casino operator, announced
a key profit measure had risen by a fifth for the year to a
record as Chinese high rollers wagered vast sums in its resorts,
sending its shares up 10 percent.
The result underscores the rebound underway in the numbers
of visiting Asian gamblers since a Chinese government crackdown
in 2016 led to the arrest of 17 staff of larger rival Crown
Resorts Ltd and hammered Australian casino turnover.
Sydney-based Star said "normalised" annual net profit, which
calculates profit without changes to the house win rate, was a
record A$258.1 million ($188.8 million) for the year to end-June
compared to A$214.5 million in the previous year.
Turnover from "International VIPs" - generally wealthy
Chinese tourists - shot up 54.3 percent to $61.2 billion, the
company said.
And it added that the upswing appeared to be continuing in
the new financial year.
"Whilst a short period of time, VIP volumes continue to be
pleasing," it said in a statement, referring to the current
financial year.
Earlier this month, Crown Resorts, which is 46 percent owned
by billionaire James Packer, posted a 12.7 percent jump in
yearly profit, also due to a spike in Chinese tourist turnover.
Shares of Star rose as much as 10 percent in morning
trading, and were still up 6 percent by midsession, while the
broader market was up 0.2 percent. Crown shares were up
1 percent.
"One of the areas that Australian casinos have really
struggled with (is) trying to attract these 'whales', big
spending gamblers, particularly out of Asia," said James McGlew,
executive director of corporate stockbroking at Argonaut.
"Star has said that its VIP volumes are starting to pick up
again."
Including an unusually high win rate for "International VIP"
gamblers, net profit for Star fell 44 percent to A$148 million.
Star is trying to capitalise on a stampede of tourists from
China, the biggest supplier of visitors to Australia, by
developing its resorts in Sydney, the northern city of Brisbane
and the popular Gold Coast tourist destination.
Among those developments, it wants to build a skyscraper
resort on the Sydney waterfront, a mile from a casino tower that
Packer's Crown is building.
Star declared a final dividend of 13 Australian cents, up
from 9 cents the previous year.
($1 = 1.3669 Australian dollars)
(Additional reporting by Nikhil Kurian Nainan in BENGALURU;
Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
2018-08-24 05:17:05

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